Tadashi Kawamata

Toronto, 1989

Venice Bienale, 1982

from http://www.csw.art.pl/new/2001/kawamata_e.html

Kawamata creates projects which border on installation and architecture, his artistic interventions are focused on urban sites. The artist refers to the relationship between the artistic creation /material/ existing space, by composing the work into the existing environment and building a structural connection. Kawamata's works are ingenious simulations of urban situations - roads, bridges, passages, "private" spaces - they are unreal, unrealistic and non-functional objects. The artist relates to the urban chaos of modern cities which is invisible at first glance because it is hidden behind rational, planned structures. Kawamata builds over existing urban objects, facades and interiors with complicated labyrinths of scaffolding, creating a resemblance of architectural "cancer". He defies the rules of logic and symmetry, the laws of architectural rhythm and multi-level hierarchy, questioning the systems of habits linked to utility and aesthetics. His projects provoke associations with the polymorphous and equivocal nature of fractals.

Kawamata also introduces other elements into his installations, which are derived from the specific nature of the sites where he builds his objects. In France he built works with the use of thousands of chairs. In the old synagogue in Metz (Les chaises de traverse, 1998) he installed a structure which penetrated from the outside to inside the architectural object. The installation was spread out in space, located at bus stops over a distance of 25 kilometres, with chairs which connected the installation site with the distant city centre. Kawamata's projects which are currently implemented in Japan are strictly connected with the urban situation of cities and particular regions.